Air Algerie Flight AH5017 disappeared on its way from Quagadougou, Burkina Faso to Algiers, Algeria and is believed to have crashed in Mali.

Missing Air Algerie Flight Crashed

The commercial jetliner took off at 1:17 a.m. local time (9:17 p.m. EST Wed.) and vanished 50 minutes later over Mali. Roughly 30 minutes before it went missing, the jet’s pilots asked to change route due to a heavy rainstorm, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin said, according to NBC News.

Aboard the plane were a total of 110 passengers and six crew. Of the passengers, 51 were French nationals, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian. The six crewmembers were Spanish, as the plane is owned and operated by Spanish airline Swiftair.

Wreckage from AH5017 was reportedly found in Tilemsi, Mali, reported The Guardian. Mali is still in a period of unrest, as rebels currently have control of the northern fringe of the country. Though the FAA has notified civil aircrafts flying above Mali that the rebels have small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, it’s not believed that the rebels are equipped with firearms capable of taking down a plane the size of Flight AH5017.

Last week, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while flying over a section of Ukraine where war is ongoing between the country and Russian separatists. The commercial aircraft was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crewmembers. On Wednesday, a Taiwanese plane crash left 48 people dead.

GET THE FREE uINTERVIEW iPHONE APP FOR LATEST NEWS UPDATES

Leave a comment

Read more about: